


When All Else Succeeds

by mielipieli



Series: Soft Wars Fanfiction - Fanfiction of Fanfiction [3]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Soft Wars, fluff fluffity fluff nothing but fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:47:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24822571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mielipieli/pseuds/mielipieli
Summary: When the war is over and Concord Dawn is their home, the Shebse will sit together and spend evenings in idle conversation.
Relationships: CC-5052 | Bly & CC-2224 | Cody & CC-6454 | Ponds & CT-7567 | Rex & CC-3636 | Wolffe
Series: Soft Wars Fanfiction - Fanfiction of Fanfiction [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1765462
Comments: 5
Kudos: 158
Collections: Open Source Soft Wars





	When All Else Succeeds

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Project0506](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Project0506/gifts).



> I have literally no idea whether the pledge order is what this implies but I had this idea and it wouldn't work otherwise, so it is what it is...

“So, Cody, I’ve been wondering”, Ponds says and takes a sip of his drink, creating a pause very much on purpose and just to annoy them. “Who pledged last?”

Bly was watching Cody from the moment Ponds set his glass back down, so he sees the sequence of reactions. First, Cody tenses (Which he doesn’t do. Not like that. Not with them because there’s no need for the apprehension of a fight it conveys. And not with anyone else because then it would be a weakness, broadcasting your reaction like that.). Then, he looks at Rex, his eyebrow twitching up, almost a question. 

Bly isn’t fast enough to see Rex’s response. When he’s looking at Rex, Rex’s face is already a neutral mask. It betrays a lot in its perfect stillness but sadly, nothing that Bly can currently place. He gets the feeling he’s missing quite a bit of context.

He studies Rex’s expression a while longer but it doesn’t reveal anything more. Bly gives up and looks back to Cody. He’s smiling now, in that almost predatory way that they all sometimes get - Bly has seen it on all of the others and himself, too, in the mirror, once or twice - and that they’ve all copied from Wolffe. 

Cody leans forward, just a bit, and Bly is immediately incredibly suspicious: “How about you guess?”

There’s the sound of Wolffe’s eye roll from across the table. (Someone less acquainted with Wolffe might call it an indignant huff and say that an eye roll doesn’t make any sounds. Bly knows better. It’s the indignant huff of Wolffe’s eye roll. Neither ever happens without the other.) 

“Fox”, Ponds says.

Four years ago - maybe even one - the answer might have made Bly ‘tsk’ in disapproval. It’s objectively a bad answer: If it was Fox, there would be no reason for the amusement that Cody is  _ very _ clearly showing. And, there’s no reason why Rex would be  _ at all _ emotionally involved in it (and that at least, his face is practically screaming to the world).

It’s a bad answer and if they were still at war or on Kamino, Bly would tease Ponds about it. Would point out that he  _ clearly _ wasn’t paying attention, that he hadn’t thought his answer through (Because not being alert can be your death in the field). Now, with all of them on Concord Dawn, he can’t help but exchange an easy grin with Wolffe. 

Ponds raises his hands defensively: “Okay, yeah. I didn’t think that through. Shut up.”

It seems played, the annoyance. But Ponds’ annoyance always seems played, even when it’s earnest and the evening is too nice to let anyone stew in negative emotions. He softly bumps Ponds’ leg with his knew and the smile that’s immediately thrown his way is answer enough to the silent question. 

Bly looks back at Cody, then at Rex and then at Wolffe. They stare at each other, daring the other to make his guess first because with every clue the guessing game  _ should  _ get easier. 

Wolffe shrugs and rolls his eyes. He’s never been particularly patient - not when he didn’t have to be: “Bacara”, he announces. 

It’s not a bad guess. It’s wrong, though. Bacara pledged before Fox, Bly knows. And it wouldn’t explain why Cody is so karking  _ amused. _ There’s no punch line to it. They all know it took the Marines a while to feel like they belonged. 

“No”, Cody says, confirming what Bly already knows. 

He sees the twitch from the corner of his eyes. 

Bly has made a study of it over the years. Of knowing the tiny movements Rex makes when he doesn’t want to broadcast his reactions. And that one is him stopping himself from crossing his arms. It shows annoyance and from the way he’s looking at Cody, Bly knows it’s directed at Cody. Cody is still wholly amused.

It’s the piece of the puzzle that was still missing.

“Kriff me”, Bly says.

He almost doesn’t hear Wolffe’s “Don’t you have your  _ Jetii  _ for that?” but his subconscious automatically flips him off, anyway.

“Really, Rex?”, he asks.

The room immediately erupts into outrage. It’s noticeably not Cody and Rex doing the erupting. 

“Really, Rex?” Wolffe repeats Bly’s words in incredulity when Cody’s grin and Rex’s smile (It’s the shy one that he rarely gets with anyone but them. It’s him waiting for a reaction, for their opinions, for their  _ approval _ .) make it obvious that Bly is right.

“Huh”, Ponds says. “I’d have thought Rex was first.”

“Oh, he was first, too.” Cody says and his posture shifts. Bly feels dread settle into his stomach because something about that shift lets Bly know that he’s going into ‘little shit’-mode. “Unofficially.”

Bly doesn’t stifle his sigh. He doesn’t even regret it when a shot of that terrible rotgut Torrent brews is shoved in front of him. The others cheer when he drinks it.

“I still don’t know why I agreed to that”, he complains. (Because, really? It’s perfectly reasonable to be slightly done with the other  _ Shebse’s  _ antics once in a while. It doesn’t mean that he needs more alcohol.)

Cody laughs: “Because you need to loosen up.”

Bly doesn’t reply. He’s not had enough alcohol that a response would slip out without his permission. His mind is, however, loudly shouting possible responses about their squad having been named for the stick up Cody’s  _ shebs _ . 

“Oooh, we’ve gotten him drunk enough for mental sassiness”, Ponds exclaims.

Bly hits him with his elbow. Or tries to, anyway. His elbow is caught and his entire arm taken prisoner. Bly rolls his eyes. He  _ doesn’t  _ sigh because the night is still young and he doesn’t want it to end in alcohol poisoning. 

Wolffe gets them back on topic: “You’re making it a joke”, he says, looking at Cody. And Wolffe’s tone can be hard to read sometimes, so Bly thinks at first that he means offense. 

Cody must, too, because he looks just about ready to defend himself. But there is something else in Wolffe’s voice that gets Bly’s brain going. It all clicks into place suddenly and he raises his hand - the one not currently being hugged by Ponds - to stop Cody. 

“You’re making it a joke”, Bly starts carefully because his thoughts are still chaotic and he needs time to find the right words for what he means. “So that when people ask - and they will - you can politely point them to the fact that it doesn’t matter who swore first and who swore last.” 

The room goes quiet at that. It’s too sincere for the kind of evening they’re supposed to be having - in-jokes and laughter and falling asleep in a pile on the floor only to wake up in the morning with aching backs and heads - and Bly’s throat goes a bit tight. There are people who will think that it matters, the order in which they swore, who will think themselves better - more Clan - for swearing before others.

(And, yeah, they asked, too. They’re all too curious to leave it be forever. But Cody knows them well enough to know that with them it’s just idle curiosity, nothing more.)

Ponds drops Bly’s arm and sighs dramatically: “I don’t think any of you know what a joke is.”

The comment is so incredibly unexpected that the laughter feels like it’s torn from his chest. It’s so unfailingly  _ Ponds _ in the way that it breaks the growing tension with one swift strike. Wolffe throws his head back and Rex shakes his and Cody, who was just taking a sip from his drink, spits the rotgut all over the table. And Ponds smiles contentedly when Bly looks at him. 

There’s a warmth in Bly’s stomach that might not be caused entirely by the alcohol. 


End file.
